6 — Friday, January 16, 1998 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT un play UN play in West Vancouver has become child’s play, and there’s little the legal system is doing about it. Over a seven-day period recently, three people — at least two of them teenagers — were found with replica handguns by West Vancouver Police. One of the fake weapons was being passed around by teenagers outside a bank, another was tucked into the back of a teenager’s pants in a bowl- ing alley. Another young male point- ed a toy gun at a West Vancouver Police officer. If others mistake these replica guns for real guns, dangerous situations can result, say the police. The Criminal Code states that any- one who carries a weapon or imita- tion of that weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace is guilty of an indictable offence. Pointing a fake gun at a police offi- cer or passing a replica gun around outside a bank surely should qualify the foolhardy miscreants for charges. But, under our legal system, appar- ently not. None of the three young males possessing or pointing the replica) guns was charged with weapons offences. Lucky lads. ; All three young males — at least two of them were of young offender age — should have been charged with offences — a fate far better for the toters of fake guns than if police offi- cers, or others, fired back. It will be too late then to make the unfortunate few who are stupid enough to play with replica guns understand the dangers of their hobby. matiibox ep neice eae et ttt oe Let North Shore run its transit system Dear Editor: The Roche Point Community —_ Association wishes to express support for any and all efforts being made by council towards investigating a North Shore transit system that is respon- sive to and responsible for aii ‘North Shore residents. Routing and scheduling decisions cannot be made effectively by — provincial bureaucrats sitting in an office without firsthand knowledge of the real needs of the North Vancouver District community. They would be well served to push for an autonomous transportation commission and a funding program to support it. Perhaps a combined North Shore transit system to include West Vancouver, North Vancouver City and North Vancouver District should be considered. An effective system encourages the use of transit as a result of being inexpen- sive, efficient, reliable and convenient. Our current transit sys- tem appears to be none of these. Christen Kwan Roche Point Community Association chairman This mob has right to rule Dear Editor: During a CBC discussion on the imminent attempt to recall Prince George and Skeena MLAs they played a recording of Gordon Wilson’s remarks against recall. He had said it would bring about “mob rule” over those “legitimately elected.” Considering, it would be north shore the same “mob” electorate doing the recalling as those who did the electing, I fail to see Mr. Wilson’s point. Indeed, when, as now, the “mob” discover they have been seriously lied to, they have every reason to exercise their right to rule. Denis Mason West Vancouver ‘North Shore News. founded in 1969 2s an snrtependent suburban newspaper and quashed under Schedule 111. Paragraph 111 af the Excrse Tax Act. ss published each Wednesttay, Finday and St.uday by North Shore Free Press LES and dstnbuted to every coor on the North Shore Canada Post Canadian Publications Mad Sales Product Agreement No 0057236 C agtathan Bell teative Services Manager 985-2131 (127) Distritution Manager 986-1337 (124) 61,582 (average ceculanan, Veonesoay, Fricay & Sunday} 985-2131 (101) Better health through Joylessness § HERE’S a demand for Joylessness. Conditions at Lions Gate Hospital —~ once proud, respected and beloved on the North Shore — have reportedly become an administrative and perhaps a medical scandal. Restore LGH or resign, Joy MacPhail. No. Just resign. I have little hope that B.C.’s health minister will restore anything, or she would have already. The doctors are openly rebellious. The patients — keep reading for first-hand evidence — are outraged. And the buck pauses on the desk of North Shore Health Region chief executive officer Inge Schamborzki. But only pauses. It stops on the desk of Joy MacPhail. She’s Schamborzki’s boss. She ignored the uproar following Schamborzki’s appointment and the fir- ing last spring of highly-regarded LGH chief operating officer Lynette Best. You can be certain that the choice of Schamborzki by a “New” “Democratic” Party government ineans that she’s got the NDP’s stamp of ideological approval all over her. But put aside any bias that you suspect (you cynic) that I harbor against the NDP and MacPhail. Consider the letter in last Sunday's News from Joan E. Humphries, a former volunteer for 15 years and a financial sup- porter of the LGH foundation. Based on her husband's experience as an LGH patient, Mrs. Humphries rips into the place for stressed staff, unhappy ew PETER SPECK Publisher i. Oee Dhaliwal Human Resources Manager 985-2131 (177) jerry Peters Photography Manager 905-2131 (169) Classified Manager 986-6222 (202) Dotig Frot Comptrotler 985-2131 (133) Entise cuntents © 1997 Notth Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. doctors, nurses doing “an incredible job under appalling conditions,” and “very nervous patients.” Housekeeping, she says, is “a disgrace!” She calls for Schamborzki’s dismissal and Lynette Best’s rein- statement. Another lerter-writer, . Betty Andrews, who spent almost 2 month in cardiol- ogy at LGH and saw six nurses quit, said she “could write a book on all the bad things now going on [at LGH] which used to be the best in B.C.” And more. Peggy Bell and Ellic Cavanaugh are two doughty North Vancouver ladies of 74 and 67 respectively, of a generation that doesn’t mince words. Neighbors, they coincidental- ly ended up in LGH ar the same time last month. “The place is filthy. My fect were stick- ing to the floor. The food ... is unbeliev- able,” Mrs. Bell rold me. “The good nurses are absolutely run- ning. The bad nurses that are ready to retire sit on their bums and don’t even pay any attention to a bell.” They're “old dames who should give up.” She was in terrible pain trom an intra- Venous connection that sounds as if it went wrong. An apparently inexperienced nurse would neither remove the connection nor give her painkiller, she said. As for Mrs. Cavanaugh, she knows VGH well. She was with the therapeutic dictary staff at Evergreen House when it opened in 1971 and remained 11 years: “We took great pride. It was like a big fam- ily. .... A supervisor said ‘if we paid you what we really owe you, we couldn’t afford it.” ; No more. The food — once provided by LGH?’s own kitchen, now by St. Paul’s Hospital — is unbelievably bad, the place cold, she claims. And she too experienced : agonizing pain when a plaster was removed |.” from her arm. “ Although “twg or three nurses were. - just super,” Mrs. Cavanaugh said, there were “two particular nurses I'd like to hang : up to dry.” The “night of nights” occurred a week before Christmas. A woman of 25 in her room who was “just a sweetie, tiny and soft,” fell to the floor. Mrs. Cavanau' wd rang her bell without result. She said she’. - went to the nurses” station and found nvo nurses “yakking away a mile a minute.” They criticized fer for not shouting for them. They hoisted the fallen woman “like ~ - a sack of potatoes.” Though it sounds alto- .. gether coincidental, the young woman, a: :."* cancer patient, went home days later and. - died a day after her 26th birthday, just before Christmas. Many people feel they have bad experi- « ence with hospitals. But this cumulative evidence can’t be lightly dismissed. MacPhail, out! 00 Kudos to brave West Vancouver Blue ~ Bus driver Susan Falls for standing un at. last week’s meeting on the proposed Greater Vancouver transit authority and declaring that riders are cheating the pre- sent system 53 ways to breakfast. Yes, she’s counted 53 means of fare eva- sion. Most drivers wink at it. BC Transit hugely underestimates its pervasiveness. Honest riders are massively subsidizing the dishonest. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, {uli address & telephone number. 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